Grand Finale
by LunagaleMaster
Summary: There was only a week until graduation. After many loses (some more personal than others), hardships, but many, many happy memories, it was time for Jack and Maddie to move on. However, as this time in their lives comes to a close, new opportunities revealed themselves. For Maddie, her new life seemed to be with her lovable, lab dancing, wide smiling, perfect for her, boyfriend.


AN: I wrote this for a secret santa on a for sweeneytodd (which seems to be a pattern on the things I finish huh..)

Anyway, I was given various characters with the condition it had to be fluff, so I decided Jack and Maddie plus a heck of a ton of fluff. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. All rights go to Nickelodeon and the show's creator Butch Hartman. Please support the official release.

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 **(||||)Grande Finale(||||)**

It was a slightly solemn day, Maddie had to admit. Not sad in a way of an experiment gone wrong or destructive like… that day had been. However, as she and Jack shuffled boxes around the lab Maddie couldn't help but have a heavy feeling in her heart.

After all, college graduation was both a time of grand finales and eye-opening beginnings.

The two paranormal scientists had spent the last week slowly cleaning out the lab. There hadn't been another group to take their place the next year, and even if there was, Maddie suspected they would have been relocated to a much smaller work space. Their work, while exemplary, didn't attract the widest of audiences, both to work in their field and the attention and prestige of higher level scientists.

To be frank, Maddie and Jack were regarded as laughing stalks. Not "true scientists" or "professionals."

Neither one of the two were discouraged, however, and they had made plans to work together on this grand project: to prove the existence of ghosts. With Maddie's calculations and Jack's unbending spirit and determination, she knew that they would eventually break the barrier between their realms and find what they longed to study for real.

But that was far, far into the future. At least a ten a year plan, one that Maddie hadn't really planned out that far other than "work with her boyfriend on thought to be impossible things." It wasn't much of a plan, but it was more of one than many people graduating had. Plus, there was the company to be considered.

Maddie paused in her packing for a moment. The stuffy lab puffed up her already frizzy hair and make the strands stick to her forehead, neck, and just about anywhere stray strands could find themselves in. Grimacing, she wiped her forehead, scowl deepening when her hand slid against more sweat in return.

Maybe it was time to take a break.

"Jack," Maddie started, sighing softly as she turned around to look at him, "Do you mind if we veg for a-"

She froze, wide eyed. Covering her mouth, she tried and failed the repress the tiny giggles that built up in her throat.

There, in all his mullet glory was her boyfriend, jumping up and down, waving around an old metal PVC tube, and moving in ways he probably shouldn't. The radio had been on before, though Maddie had ignored the music. Jack hadn't obviously. No, her narbo was moving to "Beat It", putting things in boxes and just enjoying the music to his heart's content. He wasn't being as careful as he should, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

Her boyfriend was dancing without a care in the world, and she loved him for it.

Still, she was dragging, and Maddie was pretty sure that as soon as he stopped, he would be too.

"Jack," Maddie called. She pushed herself off the desk and moved closer. To her amusement, he didn't seem to hear her, too caught up in the beat to stop. Shaking her head fondly, Maddie sighed and padded towards him, "Jaaaaaaack."

He finally heard her the third time. Jack swung around to face her, a wide grin on his face. As he held the tube in his hands, green ectoplasm dripped out of end. There wasn't really anything special about how he looked, but Maddie couldn't help but smile back at his wide puppy dog eyes and the excitement bursting through him.

"Maddie!" He yelled out. Jack held up the tube higher, "Do you remember this?"

"No," She said, arching an eyebrow, but the smile was still wide on her face, "but you're going to explain anyway aren't you?"

"Of course!" Jack turned around and plopped the tube on the table behind him. Maddie followed and stood beside him.

As Jack started presenting, Maddie leaned into his shoulder with a soft sigh, "This!" He proclaimed, "was the tube I used for our third ever experiment!" He pointed to where the ectoplasm was leaking out. The end looked like something burned it, "This was where the ecto collector machine was before it made a mad explosion!"

"Wait? This was a part of that?" Maddie touched the tube in awe, "But that was like, sophomore year- Jack, where did you find this?"

"It was nothing!" He said with a wave of his hand, "I found it chillin' in one of the buckets in the corner over there. Tubular, huh?"

Maddie laughed, "Was that a pun?"

"Huh, I guess, it was," He stopped in his inspection and looked back at Maddie, smile wide on this face, "I punned! Ha! Jack Fenton is a mad cool pun master!"

The two fell into a fit of laughter, Jack holding Maddie while both of their shoulders shook. Somehow they ended up holding one another, which wasn't very surprising, really. Jack always liked bringing her in to snuggle, and well, laying against Jack was like holding a giant teddy bear.

Maddie sighed softly, smiling in his broad shoulder. What did she do to get so lucky?

"Hey, Maddie?" Jack whispered. At her hum in response, he continued, "You feeling any better?"

She froze in his arms, "Jack-"

"I know you were feeling a bit down about all this," He continued, "And I thought, hey! Maybe some good memories will bring in some cheer. So did my Fenton charm help?" She burst out laughing at his wiggling eyebrows, and the uncharacteristic smirk on his face.

She snuggled deeper into his chest, and said, laughter in her voice, "Doesn't it always?" She sighed again and whispered, voice quiet but heavy, "I love you."

He chuckled and held her closer, "I love you too. More than anything. In fact, I mean, Mads, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I don't know how you could fall for a lame guy like me, sometimes."

Maddie pulled back and looked up at his face. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, slight frown on his face. One of his hands had moved away from her back and were tapping against his hip, fingers trailing the pocket of his lab coat.

"Are you-?"

Before she could ask, he took her hands with a wide smile, "Dance with me!" He started pulling her away from the lab equipment to a less crowded part of the lab.

Maddie laughed, and despite her concern, she let herself be pulled forward, "We can't, not now. We still have work to do, and the place is still a mess."

"Come on, Mads. It's Bowie! You can't say no to Bowie," Sure enough, David Bowie's "Let's Dance" was booming out on the radio.

 _Let's Dance! Put on your red shoes and dance the blues_

 _Let's Dance! To the song they're playing on the radio_

Maddie paused for just a moment. Then she smiled fondly, squeezed his hands, and going on her tip toes, whispered lowly in his ear, "Let's dance then."

Jack swept her up with a laugh. The familiar beat and the icy tunes lit up their faces and for a moment, Maddie pretended it was just the two of them in the world. Well, three counting Bowie, but when she was laughing and dancing and messing around the lab with someone she loved, there wasn't a normal sense of reality. They were alone, and if it wasn't for the fact that they were both potentially covered in goop and the many layers of sweat that were sticking to them, things may have gotten a bit freaky.

Instead, the two just pressed close and let the music wash over them.

 _If you say run, I'll run with you_

 _If you say hide, we'll hide_

 _Because my love for you_

 _Would break my heart in two_

 _If you should fall, into my arms_

 _And tremble like a flower_

"Hey, Mads! Hold on!"

"What?"

Suddenly, she was being swept upwards. Maddie wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, as Jack twirled her around and around. The room swirled, and the music blurred until all she could feel was the warmth of Jack's arms around her and their bouncing laughter.

 _Let's Dance!_

She felt Jack bump into something. There was a loud crash, and Maddie only had a moment to see Jack's own eyes widen before the whirling on a machine caught her attention.

"Jack, get do-"

And before she could warn him, they were suddenly covered with a whole heck of a lot of green test goo.

"You okay, Maddie?" Jack asked. She couldn't see. The goo most likely only got on Jack's back, but for her, it covered her face, her hair, and just about everywhere on her front half.

Using the back of her sleeve, she wiped her mouth. She had to tilt her head upward to keep the goo from sliding over the clean spot again, "I'm fine. Just put me down and get me a towel."

Despite Bowie playing in the background, it wasn't really time to dance anymore.

He put her back down on the ground, and while she couldn't see him, she heard his heavy steps frantically slide around the lab in search of a towel. Shaking her head, she used her other sleeve to try and clean her eyes with limited success.

"Here, Mads! Found it folded up in a box over there!" A fluffy material was pressed into her hands. While she silently mourned the loss of such a nice feeling towel, but it was effective, she admitted. She wiped her face clean and collected the huge piles that had pooled on her coat.

"Next time," She muttered while wiping her arm, "We need to make sure there isn't anything around us when we're messing around. Our safety protocols I know aren't the best, but we need to be careful just in case…. Jack? Are you listening?"

A dopey grin met her. Her boyfriend was just leaning against a nearby table, watching as she rambled.

She frowned at him, "Jack? Why are you so out of sorts today?"

His smile grew wider, "You know how you were feeling a bit off today?"

"It wasn't… I mean," she sighed, "I suppose, yes. Are you feeling down?"

"Not at all! I mean, I'm a bit nervous, but I mean, who wouldn't be. We're graduating, Mads! We're gonna be full fledged, adults! How rad is that?" He paused, and Maddie couldn't help but notice the far away look in his eyes, "This is everything I ever wanted," He continue quietly, "Everything and so much more. So much. I mean, who'd a thought, I'd meet the love of my life here?"

He eyed her, deep blue eyes capturing her in ways that his arms never could. They had warmth, and respect, and so much love that it took her breath away. Something was different here; this wasn't just Jack's other "I love you so much" speeches.

And the way he kept fiddling with his pocket…

"What are you-"

"I love you, so, so much, Maddie. Sometimes I look at us and wonder, how does a guy like me getta girl like her to even look at me, let alone love me, and I think, Jack Fenton, you can't lose her, not now," He looked down at his pocket, and finished with a whisper, "Not ever."

She watched surrealy, as his hand went to his pocket. Vaguely, she remembered belatedly asking him about it two weeks ago. He laughed at the time, saying something about a good luck charm before going back and working on tearing down yet another machine to take with them in their new lab.

Maddie could barely breath, and it didn't feel real. But there was no mistaking the little box in Jack's hand nor the way he was going down on one knee.

Here, in the middle of their half packed lab, sweaty, dirty, and covered in green goop, Jack Fenton was proposing to her.

She held the towel tighter, mind blank but feeling completely and utterly deliriously happy.

Jack continued, sounding nervous despite himself, "I know I'm not the most normal person in the world. Your auntie and your mom and even my mom and dad have said as much. I mean, look at me! But, I love you so much and I"m not crazy! I'm not crazy, no matter what everyone thinks! We're ghost hunters, fighters, and everything in between. You're my partner, Maddie,and, well," The box opened, revealing a simple gold ring. Jack smiled brightly, eyes practically shining, and despite the mess, Maddie wouldn't have had this any other way.

"Maddie, will you marry me?"

Her smile was so wide, she could feel it stretching painfully across her face, but she couldn't bring herself to care. For once, words left her, and Maddie did the only thing she could think of to do, run over, tackle her new fiance, and kiss him like it was the end of the world.

When they were done, they were left gasping, little laughs in the back of their throat. Maddie giggled, as Jack peppered kisses around her face, while muttering, "You said yes, you said, yes," in a mantra under his breath.

The little box was forgotten in the chaos of kisses, at least for a moment. Then Maddie carefully took the box out of Jack's hands and after inspecting to see if it wasn't crushed, gently lifted the ring from its container.

When she slid it on her finger, Maddie knew it was perfect.

Another round of kisses followed the ring, and by the time they were done, somehow the two ended up on the floor, Maddie in Jack's lab, and green goo surrounding them. They held each other close, breaths apart, snuggling into each other's warmth and laughing. Why? Maddie didn't really know, she just felt so…. Happy.

"Mads," Jack whispered, "We were thinking about a lab together, right?"

"Yes," She said into his neck.

His arms pulled her closer, "Let's not just make it a lab. Let's make it a combo house-lab."

"Combo?" She asked amused, "My, Jack, you're a bit forward. Asking about kids already?"

"Yes! Kids! You, me, and a bunch of little ones running around the house. Think about it, Mads."

Her mind paused, and maybe it was the endorphins or dopamine flooding her mind, but the idea was amazing.

"Kids," She tasted the word in her mouth. Children wasn't really part of the plan originally. Independence, strength, and professionalism. These were the keys to being a successful woman in the field of science. Yet, here she was, thoughts derailing to the what ifs.

"Maddie? Is it-"

"Yes," She said nodding. Maddie held his face between her hands, "If it's with you, Jack, then yes, let's have a family."

His eyes brightened so much, it almost hurt, "Little genius kids with your smarts. All of them as smart as you."

"And kids with your imagination and love and care and loyalty."

"Raising them in a haunted town."

"Of course! How else are we supposed to catch ghosts?"

"Lab upstairs for the world to see."

"No, downstairs. Less leakage."

He laughed and held her closer, "See, this is why you're the smart one."

She laughed into his neck and held him. In the corner of her eye, she could see the little gold ring glittering in the corner of her eye. Everything felt lighter than air, dizzy but in a good way. Everything before her seemed almost insignificant compared to what the future would lead to.

"I love you, Jack."

"I love you too."

And despite what the past held and what the future could hold, at that moment, everything was perfect.

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Word Count: 2,615 (not including intro, outro, or title)

And done. Tell me what you liked! Tell me what you disliked! I hope you guys enjoyed and have had a great 2017 so far. I don't really have much to say (other than don't kill me for not updating my things). So... yeah. That's it for now.

See ya next time!

~LunagaleMaster


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